Gray was born in Dublin 1930 and studied there under Cecil ffrench Salkeld ARHA. He was stage designer for several Dublin Theatres and moved to London in 1957 First oneman exhibit at Abbott and Holder Gallery 1960.He befriended and painted Francis Bacon, work now in The National Portrait Gallery London. 1963 Gray moved to France (mostly Paris) and remained there until 2002 having many oneman exhibitions including a large retrospective at UNESCO in 1994.He now works in both Paris and London.

Thursday, 28 June 2007

Ted Hughes in the Calder Valley

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Hommage to Patrick Swift

The Irish artist Patrick Swift was born in Dublin in 1927, three years before myself. He died of a brain tumor at the age of 56 in Portugal where he had founded Porches Pottery in the small village of that name. I was quite surprised when I first heard that he had moved into ceramics. However he also continued painting until his life ended. The first drawing I made of Patrick was when he came to my Dublin studio one morning in 1951. Later I used this drawing as a base for my bigger hommage. We never became friends, indeed if I am honest I could say that there was no love lost between us. I will say that he was a better artist than I was, or am. In the 1950`s Freud, Swift and myself were painting in somewhat the same style. (I will try later to upload works from each of us from that period to show what I mean) Swift`s work exploded later from the tight coloured drawing technique to a heavy broken impasto, that was not far removed from Van Gogh or Oskar Kokoschka. If Swift`s life had not been cut short I believe he would have surpassed the fame of Lucien Freud. However, in Swift,s own lifetime he never courted fame but I think he deserves it now.

Derry O`Sullivan

Derry O`Sullivan is a well known Gaelic poet. He himself translates his works to French and English. His mind is a drill that penetrates deep, whether the subject be the illness of his father or a familly who once lived in his Paris address and suffered during the occupation. He has been a good friend of mine for many years and we enjoy many a glass together. His Gaelic publisher is COISCEIM Dublin. email: leabhairgaelige@eircom.net

Ted Hughes

I have fed upon the works of Ted Hughes for many years and among the few good friends I have in Paris are Margaret Archer and Kathleen Collier. Some Christmas past Kathleen presented me with an audiocassette of Hughes reading his own works. Each time I return to my Paris studio I pass a lot of time listening to his voice and a month ago I decided to try the hommage to him.

Helena Bonham Carter

In 1995 in Paris I was approached by Stephan Batut the casting director of a film titled ``Portrait Chinois`` Helena Bonham Carter was in the lead role. Stephan proposed a job as an extrta as they needed someone of my age with ``gray/white hair and a used look`` I never changed more than a few words with HBC but while waiting around on the set I managed to make a few drawings of her, hence the portrait.

Le Monteau Rouge

In 1995 I came accross a portrait in a Sotheby`s sale in London. It was by the Irish artist Sir William Orpen R.A. The subject was a young girl in a red military overcoat titled`` The Roscommon Dragoon`` This work was beautifully executed and I felt forced to try in my own small way to try a more modern look. The red coat is the only real resemblence to the original. On a day when I needed some hard cash my good friend Margaret Archer purchased it from my studio.

The Claire Triptych

Some years ago I was having a few drinks with my daughter Eleonore and some friends in Finnegan`s Wake a noted Irish Pub, in Paris. I noticed a young girl at the bar who appealed to me as a sitter. I mentioned this to my friends and a little later Eleonore brought the girl Claire over to our table. Claire by a strange coincidence was an art student and is now established as a painter of the modern school in Paris.

search for early works.

I am hoping that someone concerned with the artworld in Dublin may click on this blog. This little story may explain. Back in 1951 when I started painting I rented a studio in Leeson Street. It was a wonderful atmosphere. The painter Nevill Johnson had his studio a few doors away and facing me was the studio of the German artist Helmut Mueller. Round the corner in Hatch Street, Patrick Swift was installed and used to let Lucien Freud share his place each time that Freud visited Dublin. I was contracted to a weekly rent but after some time got well behind with my payments. I arrived one day and found that the doorlock had been changed. The landlady stood on the stairs and informed me that she would give me a new key when I paid up. Alas I never did as in those days we were all quite poor and the little cash we had went in the pubs. There were about twenty paintings in that studio which I have never seen since, including a large portrait of Thomaseen James who was an oddjob man for the writer Maurice Walsh (The Quiet Man etc.) and Thomaseen lived in the big manorhouse in Blackrock with Walsh. One of Walsh`s books was indeed titled ``Thomaseen James Man of No Work`` Also there was a large portrait of the young Celia Salkeld and a studio interior of Nano Reid`s Fitzwilliam Square address where she used to let Tommy Owens and myself work whenever she was back in Drogheda. I have no idea where all these works got to (maybe destroyed) but if anyone should come across one or more I would very much like to have photos just for catalogue purposes. I realize I have no claim on them.